Inflation rose to 3.9pc in September

Inflation rose to 3.9pc in September ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s annual inflation increased to 3.9 per cent in September from 3.6pc in the preceding month, the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics said on Monday, mainly because of rise in food prices.

The inflation index rose by 0.2pc month-on-month in September as compared to a decrease of 0.3pc in August and 0.1pc in September 2015.

The main inflation is measured by Consumer Price Index (CPI), which tracks prices of nearly 500 commodities every month across the country.

The government has projected the annual inflation target at 6pc for the current fiscal year. Average annual inflation stood at 2.86pc in the previous fiscal year.

The average annual inflation in the first quarter of this fiscal year — July-September 2016 — stood at 3.86pc as against 1.66pc in the same period of the fiscal year 2015-16 and 7.52pc in 2014-15.

The food group, which has a weight of 37pc in the CPI basket, rose 4pc year-on-year last month on the back of increase in prices of perishable and non-perishable food items.

On a month-on-month basis, food inflation increased by 0.1pc in September 2016 due to 1.9pc increase in prices of perishable products.

Core inflation, measured by excluding volatile food and energy prices, was recorded at 4.8pc in September, slightly up from the previous month. This inflation has remained subdued since November last year because of a tighter monetary policy and reduction in food and fuel prices.

Government borrowing is one of the key factors influencing the trend of inflation as there is a positive relation between government borrowing and core inflation.

Non-food inflation was recorded at 3.8pc in September. It has stagnated in the last four months as oil prices were kept unchanged.

Among the non-food groups, education and health indices increased by 10.19pc and 6.96pc in September compared to the same month of the last year. The highest increase of 17.5pc was witnessed in the index of alcoholic beverages and tobacco.

The index of clothing and footwear rose by 4.44pc and that of housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels by 4.31pc.